This video presents imagery, research, and reflections on our arts research project. Inspired by... more This video presents imagery, research, and reflections on our arts research project. Inspired by the recently-discovered Staffordshire Hoard treasures from medieval times, we formed the Guerilla Girlhood Guild to create a contemporary “tween” hoard of personal possessions, installations, photographs of objects (e.g., cell phones, jewelry, toys), speculative historical documents, and social networking artifacts. In this speculative narrative, my colleagues and I write from the perspectives of archeologists living in 2013, who discovered the tween artifacts from circa 2113. This inquiry illuminates contemporary issues of girl culture, bullying, and iconicity of girlhood material culture. The guild members and specialties include: myself, an art educator interested in gender and adolescent visual culture, a medievalist art historian and gender studies scholar, and a photographer/studio artist who is also the parent of adolescents.
Exploring Digital Technologies for Art-Based Special Education Models and Methods for the Inclusive K-12 Classroom, 1st Edition, 2019
The purpose of this analysis is to examine enduring creative approaches of educational philosophe... more The purpose of this analysis is to examine enduring creative approaches of educational philosophers alongside key emerging digital resources that inform inclusive art education. Froebelian education theory, like that of Montessori, Malaguzzi, and Steiner is very arts-rich in that Froebel defined learning itself as a learner-centered, exploratory creative process (Mullineaux, 1996). Teaching with a foundational knowledge of the influence of each of these philosophers on learning in visual art often empowers us to reclaim the diverse roles of the educator and artist in contemporary art rooms. This chapter introduces selected mobile learning applications and digital resources related to these philosophies, with an analysis of their potential for students with disabilities and exceptionalities. The selected examples of Froebel’s Gifts and artifacts of pedagogy from Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia practices is followed by discussion of practical uses of materials and approaches from these enduring philosophies in learning explorations emphasizing craft, nature, and play. Suggestions will be offered for future practice that mindfully utilizes such digital resources and communities alongside physical and haptic resources. Concerns about screen time and media saturation will also be addressed.
Girl of Steel Essays on Television’s Supergirl and Fourth-Wave Feminism, 2020
My analysis will center on the inner circle of Kara’s female family members and mentors who are p... more My analysis will center on the inner circle of Kara’s female family members and mentors who are privy to her three identities as Danvers, Supergirl, and Zor-El. The trinity of her identities is reflected in her work as a sort of first, second, and third shift within the show. Specifically, Kara works not only as an aspiring human journalist, but also moonlights as a superhero, and thirdly serves as an informal consultant with the DEO (Department of Extra-normal Operations), a Men In Black-like government organization where her sister is an agent and sometimes interim/acting director. Within this essay, I contextualize Supergirl as a collection of valuable narratives and symbolism centered on women’s identities, ethics of leadership, and practices of care, offering comparisons to related feminist superhero stories and ancient mythology. From my perspective, it is valuable to locate Supergirl in this way: not only as a subversive gender representation among superheroes, but also as part of a legacy of lesser known narratives and images of female strength.
The Swing of the Pendulum: The Urgency of Arts Education for Healing, Learning, and Wholeness, 2017
Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the directi... more Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the direction of overtly politicized and decontextualized testing, that we are losing opportunities to support the imaginative and expressive capacities of a generation of children and adolescents with implications for our individual and collective health. Enter arts education and the healing arts as urgently needed remedies for this imbalance, to swing the pendulum of educational practices back to a place of balance and wholeness. Informed by an arts-based sensibility, this book explores how imaginative, creative, and artistic experiences can heal, and why we urgently need them at the heart of our educational discourses and practices. These chapters invite teachers, teacher educators, and therapeutic professionals to reclaim imaginative, arts-based experiences as central to the human conditions that they serve. The narratives and case studies included here are of interest for any arts-based qualitative research course as an example of narrative inquiry, and in arts and general education programs for their pedagogical implications. “As Blake invited us to find the world in a grain of sand and showed us how poetry could materialize this, so too these storytellers discover and shape their personal meanings in ceramic pots, paintings, poems, drama, and poetry. While the stories told here are deeply ingrained interior journeys, all reflect ways of observing and embracing the world of others, of becoming wise, becoming self, and becoming skilled practitioners of meaning making. By naming and framing they suggest that clarity becomes possible and personal freedom achieved.” – Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia (from the Foreword) “This anthology offers a substantial number of narratives that represent seeking wholeness, sustenance, and renewal. In many cases, the authors provide a tribute to those who have impacted their lives in profound ways. This is an important contribution to both art education and literary education in the world of scholarly research.” – Laurel H. Campbell, Purdue University
Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the directi... more Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the direction of overtly politicized and decontextualized testing, that we are losing opportunities to support the imaginative and expressive capacities of a generation of children and adolescents with implications for our individual and collective health. Enter arts education and the healing arts as urgently needed remedies for this imbalance, to swing the pendulum of educational practices back to a place of balance and wholeness.Informed by an arts-based sensibility, this book explores how imaginative, creative, and artistic experiences can heal, and why we urgently need them at the heart of our educational discourses and practices. These chapters invite teachers, teacher educators, and therapeutic professionals to reclaim imaginative, arts-based experiences as central to the human conditions that they serve. The narratives and case studies included here are of interest for any arts-based qualitative research course as an example of narrative inquiry, and in arts and general education programs for their pedagogical implications.
“As Blake invited us to find the world in a grain of sand and showed us how poetry could materialize this, so too these storytellers discover and shape their personal meanings in ceramic pots, paintings, poems, drama, and poetry. While the stories told here are deeply ingrained interior journeys, all reflect ways of observing and embracing the world of others, of becoming wise, becoming self, and becoming skilled practitioners of meaning making. By naming and framing they suggest that clarity becomes possible and personal freedom achieved.” – Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia (from the Foreword)
“This anthology offers a substantial number of narratives that represent seeking wholeness, sustenance, and renewal. In many cases, the authors provide a tribute to those who have impacted their lives in profound ways. This is an important contribution to both art education and literary education in the world of scholarly research.” – Laurel H. Campbell, Purdue University
This nine chapter volume explores creativity in art teaching through contemporary craft. A variet... more This nine chapter volume explores creativity in art teaching through contemporary craft. A variety of artists, educators and historians share with readers their wealth of practical resources and frameworks for utilizing craft media (fiber, ceramics, baskets, needlepoint, knitting, etc.) and craft approaches (grassroots projects, digital communities, craftivism, etc.) within contemporary K-12 art education, museum and community programming, and teaching artist residencies. Authors representing a variety of specialties in craft, art, and education examine the resurgence of the handmade and homemade in contemporary youth culture, digital implications of how we define and teach craft creatively, and the overlap of design, function, and beauty in artists’ work. The anthology also describes the challenges and potentialities of working with craft in education settings, including the overarching craft of teaching practices. Each chapter provides a range of creative frameworks and practical models that educators can use comprehensively: from dynamic digital resources, to community groups, and lesson plans and activities in craft with art classes and special needs classes. The book serves to propose a working definition and rationale of the functions of craft in daily life, popular and youth culture, and larger social issues (including craft, D.I.Y., and activism/“craftivism”).
This book is a collection of glimpses into the lives and works of fifteen prominent women artists... more This book is a collection of glimpses into the lives and works of fifteen prominent women artists in contemporary ceramics. Spanning multiple genres, generations, and geographies, these potters and ceramic sculptors describe nuances, contradictions, and tensions surrounding their artworks, artistic processes, and professional lives. Within this text, artistic ambivalences are questioned and analyzed in terms of myriad gender issues. Featured ceramicists include women working in the United States: Maureen Burns-Bowie, Esta Carnahan, Ellen Day, Dolores Dunning, Heidi Fahrenbacher, DeBorah Goletz, Lynn Goodman, Joan Hardin, Beth Heit, Norma Messing, and Mary Trainor. Artists from other countries are also surveyed, such as Cara Gay Driscoll, Tsehai Johnson, Kate Malone, and Elspeth Owen.
The qualitative research summarized within this book draws influence from feminist methodologies and the visual arts methodology of portraiture. Artists, art historians, and art educators interested in ceramics and gender will find detailed discussion of subtle and unexpected persistence of gendered associations within ceramic technology, binaries of gender identity in symbols and traditions of clay, and subtle sexism surrounding ceramics education. At the same time, this text celebrates women’s work in ceramics as an often neglected set of perspectives, highlighting the intricate complexities of artistic ambivalences and lived experiences of art within a dynamic dialogue.
Courtney Lee Weida is a ceramic artist and assistant professor of art education. Her education includes degrees from Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Columbia University Teachers College. She has taught within public schools, museums, and arts organizations. Her publications include contributions to the Teaching Artist Journal, the Guild of Book Workers' Journal, the Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, and multiple publications of the National Art Education Association. She can be reached through www.courtneyweida.com
Zine making involves not only the creation of handmade and self-published books, but also local d... more Zine making involves not only the creation of handmade and self-published books, but also local distribution in zine communities, as well as archival processes of zine collecting in university and community libraries. These creative and communal practices, as part of the intellectual discourse known as zine studies, engender valuable arts-based research orientations and implications for art education. This article investigates zines for their potential as objects of research exploring art teacher identities and autoethnography, fandom in zines as a devotional orientation and interdisciplinary form of research methodology, and research questions pertaining to practices of collecting and archiving zine materials in universities and zine communities. Characterized by proliferation in the 1990s and a strong contemporary continuation, zines continue to create distinctly personal and communal spaces for art education reflection.
Unicorns appear as enchanted and enchanting figures throughout fairy tales, popular media, fan ar... more Unicorns appear as enchanted and enchanting figures throughout fairy tales, popular media, fan art, and products, often intended or marketed for young girls. How can reading, viewing, and artmaking encounters with the mythical unicorn in artist books, which often appear in fairy tales authored by women, as well as in paintings, tapestries, illuminated letters, and films foster girls' imaginative power and empowerment fantasy? The authors' reflective inquiry about their community fairy tale arts workshop revealed elementary school girls' specific interest in a variety of unicorn imagery and characters from medieval art to contemporary television. Recognizing girls' interest in unicorn narratives, the authors, in this essay, explore how critical reading and the creation of art and stories about unicorns can teach girls to begin envisioning their agency through art. Specifically, their research asks: What gendered expectations and stereotypes about girlhood and womanhood may be embedded in a unicorn image? In what ways does the girls' fascination with unicorns also defy these stereotypes? Since a great deal of unicorn imagery can be traced back to Eurocentric books and visual culture, how can contemporary and counterculture versions of the unicorn revise whiteness and heteronormativity in visions of girlhood?
International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, 2020
In what ways can the symbol of the unicorn represent and inform collaborative, intergenerational ... more In what ways can the symbol of the unicorn represent and inform collaborative, intergenerational visions of art education? This paper outlines some of the roles of the unicorn as a theme and a framework for contemporary applications of art education relating to enduring Froebelian art education, Waldorf-inspired art teaching, and inclusive community art practice as a form of remix. This research seeks to illuminate enduring but oft-neglected areas of inspiring art curriculum for teachers and learners across the lifespan.
In the following paper, the authors analyze the prevalence of princess culture in the literature,... more In the following paper, the authors analyze the prevalence of princess culture in the literature, film, and visual culture of young people. The authors, an art educator, art historian, and professor of English literature, propose creative interventions through alternative resources and readings. Focusing on foundations of media studies and literature of Fairy-Tale Studies and girlhood studies, this interdisciplinary collaboration investigates complex creative predicaments of girlhood and princess media. Utilizing Princess Aurora and Sleeping Beauty as a case study and focal point, the authors discuss their collaborative arts research intended to explore problems and possibilities of princess culture.
Hybrid and fully online studies and classrooms are no longer fringe elements of learning or knowl... more Hybrid and fully online studies and classrooms are no longer fringe elements of learning or knowledge acquisition; they have become integral part of learning in the 21st century. Like all modes and styles of learning, they depend on continuous research for best practices in order to remain relevant in terms of effectiveness and growth. This study is a collaboration between three professors. The courses and students we taught were in Special Education, Adolescence (Secondary) Education and Art Education. There were 35 females and 5 males in the study. Half of participants were graduate students and half-were undergraduate students, total N = 40. The participants answered 35 survey questions on their experiences in their hybrid classes at the end of the seminars via surveymonkey.com. The asynchronous hybrid classes utilized technology infused teaching, including online discussion forums, video projects, Power Points with narration and podcasts.
(In press proof of 2018 chapter.) I have experimented across several artistic media, as an artis... more (In press proof of 2018 chapter.) I have experimented across several artistic media, as an artist and teacher, but I have always been particularly drawn to the crafts, such as ceramics, basketry, and fiber. This ‘soft stuff’ has enthralled me, and also helped me to make sense of intuitively felt connections between activism and feminism in education....
Global Consciousness through the Arts: A Passport for Students and Teachers, 2018
This lesson explores treasures. Students will learn about local communities through archaeologic... more This lesson explores treasures. Students will learn about local communities through archaeological activities, and practice creating and curating treasure in the studio. The hook or essential questions of this lesson include: What is treasure? Who decides how treasure is found, preserved, and documented? When does a personal possession become a communal treasure?
Superhero and private detective Jessica Jones, “is not above humor, or beauty, or faith; she is n... more Superhero and private detective Jessica Jones, “is not above humor, or beauty, or faith; she is neither weak nor helpless.” In all its multiplicity, Marvel’s Jessica Jones is revolutionary in its diverse depiction of women’s life experiences and relationships. Finding its home on Netflix’s streaming service after being passed over by network television, the show stands to extend a small continuum of cult media representations of powerful women superheroes and their complex female friendships. Jessica Jones herself (as represented through showrunner Melissa Rosenberg’s creative vision) is somewhat ambivalent about the implications of her powers: superhero strength, speed, and healing, as well as the responsibilities and burdens those powers may incur. With common threads of a compelling, if somewhat unwilling, complex female heroine, this chapter will draw comparisons between Jessica Jones and Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS), a 1997-2003 show in which the female lead, Buffy Summers, possesses strikingly comparable superhuman power (enhanced strength, speed, and healing) and also responds to a calling to protect others.
Begun in 2012, the South Station Hoard is a collaborative effort to imagine, construct, and docum... more Begun in 2012, the South Station Hoard is a collaborative effort to imagine, construct, and document a speculative treasure trove left by tween girls. In this essay, I introduce our project, the collaboration it inspired between my artist colleagues and myself (an Art Historian), and the directions it has taken since its initial presentation at the BABEL 2012 conference in Boston, MA. One aim of this essay is to be a safe repository (or even a sort of hoard) for us to store the memories of our collaboration.
Many adolescents interact with text in a digital fashion via Kindle, the Gutenberg Project, and/o... more Many adolescents interact with text in a digital fashion via Kindle, the Gutenberg Project, and/or Google Books with greater frequency than traditional books. This article explores artists' books and bookwork as structural and conceptual metaphors for digital spaces of art created and/or utilized by teenagers. Artists' books can be categorized as art and artifact—as materials of historical record, commentary, and personal expression. While book arts often engage in self-conscious reconceptualizations of text and image, digital media such as wikis, blogs, and online social networks dovetail, extend and/or reflect/are reflected by questionings of the book format as well. This article examines digital spaces (places?) of youth culture and artistic expression such as Myspace, Facebook, deviantART, and others. Artists' books often challenge traditional forms of publishing and codex, addressing questions of media and message parallel to ongoing issues of technology in our digital age. Digital spaces of art utilized by adolescents take on a similar autonomy, marginality, and liminality to limited edition and/or self-published artists' books. At the same time, both artists' books and young artists' websites contain a certain element of awareness of the viewer/spectator within narratives and documentary structures, serving as uniquely interactively engaging contexts of art education.
How do contemporary works of film and fiction inspire, illuminate, and enhance remix culture in a... more How do contemporary works of film and fiction inspire, illuminate, and enhance remix culture in art education? By definition, the practice of remix extends a dialogue between source and derivative materials, taking “the original author’s creativity and remix[ing] it in our own lives [and] ideas" (Knobel and Lankshear, 2008; p. 22). This chapter examines diverse fan art communities and remixes pertaining to The Hunger Games major motion pictures and novels as art education contexts that explore overlapping roles of race, class, and community. Further, Hunger Games remix culture provocatively weaves intertextual threads from the source materials, suggesting powerful links between art as activism/protest, and as cultural sustenance.
What visions (and versions) of feminism and motherhood are revealed by four women artists in the ... more What visions (and versions) of feminism and motherhood are revealed by four women artists in the psychologically-laden genre of surrealism?...
Reflecting on his joint appointment in visual art and education, Stanford Professor Eliot Eisner ... more Reflecting on his joint appointment in visual art and education, Stanford Professor Eliot Eisner commented that he felt less welcome in the art department (2003). Exploring a job option at one university, I was told that as arts education faculty, neither I, nor my students, would be permitted in the school's impressive ceramics facility. How are we to encourage developing educators to incorporate the arts into their pedagogy if they lack access to first hand arts experiences? In response to this query, this chapter addresses the structure, content, and effect of a set of Exploring the Arts courses designed to bridge the education/studio gap with interdisciplinary arts offerings for visual artists and arts educators, as well as classroom teachers and artists across domains. Art Educator Adrift: Art Department vs. Education School In a survey of art education programs, Galbraith and Grauer (2004) observed that teacher educators are often afforded less status than their colleagues in other subject areas within the hierarchical structures of universities and colleges. Although teaching is a central part of being a professor, the activity and study of teaching may be seen as secondary and less valuable than research into what are regarded as more academic subject areas of higher education.
This video presents imagery, research, and reflections on our arts research project. Inspired by... more This video presents imagery, research, and reflections on our arts research project. Inspired by the recently-discovered Staffordshire Hoard treasures from medieval times, we formed the Guerilla Girlhood Guild to create a contemporary “tween” hoard of personal possessions, installations, photographs of objects (e.g., cell phones, jewelry, toys), speculative historical documents, and social networking artifacts. In this speculative narrative, my colleagues and I write from the perspectives of archeologists living in 2013, who discovered the tween artifacts from circa 2113. This inquiry illuminates contemporary issues of girl culture, bullying, and iconicity of girlhood material culture. The guild members and specialties include: myself, an art educator interested in gender and adolescent visual culture, a medievalist art historian and gender studies scholar, and a photographer/studio artist who is also the parent of adolescents.
Exploring Digital Technologies for Art-Based Special Education Models and Methods for the Inclusive K-12 Classroom, 1st Edition, 2019
The purpose of this analysis is to examine enduring creative approaches of educational philosophe... more The purpose of this analysis is to examine enduring creative approaches of educational philosophers alongside key emerging digital resources that inform inclusive art education. Froebelian education theory, like that of Montessori, Malaguzzi, and Steiner is very arts-rich in that Froebel defined learning itself as a learner-centered, exploratory creative process (Mullineaux, 1996). Teaching with a foundational knowledge of the influence of each of these philosophers on learning in visual art often empowers us to reclaim the diverse roles of the educator and artist in contemporary art rooms. This chapter introduces selected mobile learning applications and digital resources related to these philosophies, with an analysis of their potential for students with disabilities and exceptionalities. The selected examples of Froebel’s Gifts and artifacts of pedagogy from Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio Emilia practices is followed by discussion of practical uses of materials and approaches from these enduring philosophies in learning explorations emphasizing craft, nature, and play. Suggestions will be offered for future practice that mindfully utilizes such digital resources and communities alongside physical and haptic resources. Concerns about screen time and media saturation will also be addressed.
Girl of Steel Essays on Television’s Supergirl and Fourth-Wave Feminism, 2020
My analysis will center on the inner circle of Kara’s female family members and mentors who are p... more My analysis will center on the inner circle of Kara’s female family members and mentors who are privy to her three identities as Danvers, Supergirl, and Zor-El. The trinity of her identities is reflected in her work as a sort of first, second, and third shift within the show. Specifically, Kara works not only as an aspiring human journalist, but also moonlights as a superhero, and thirdly serves as an informal consultant with the DEO (Department of Extra-normal Operations), a Men In Black-like government organization where her sister is an agent and sometimes interim/acting director. Within this essay, I contextualize Supergirl as a collection of valuable narratives and symbolism centered on women’s identities, ethics of leadership, and practices of care, offering comparisons to related feminist superhero stories and ancient mythology. From my perspective, it is valuable to locate Supergirl in this way: not only as a subversive gender representation among superheroes, but also as part of a legacy of lesser known narratives and images of female strength.
The Swing of the Pendulum: The Urgency of Arts Education for Healing, Learning, and Wholeness, 2017
Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the directi... more Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the direction of overtly politicized and decontextualized testing, that we are losing opportunities to support the imaginative and expressive capacities of a generation of children and adolescents with implications for our individual and collective health. Enter arts education and the healing arts as urgently needed remedies for this imbalance, to swing the pendulum of educational practices back to a place of balance and wholeness. Informed by an arts-based sensibility, this book explores how imaginative, creative, and artistic experiences can heal, and why we urgently need them at the heart of our educational discourses and practices. These chapters invite teachers, teacher educators, and therapeutic professionals to reclaim imaginative, arts-based experiences as central to the human conditions that they serve. The narratives and case studies included here are of interest for any arts-based qualitative research course as an example of narrative inquiry, and in arts and general education programs for their pedagogical implications. “As Blake invited us to find the world in a grain of sand and showed us how poetry could materialize this, so too these storytellers discover and shape their personal meanings in ceramic pots, paintings, poems, drama, and poetry. While the stories told here are deeply ingrained interior journeys, all reflect ways of observing and embracing the world of others, of becoming wise, becoming self, and becoming skilled practitioners of meaning making. By naming and framing they suggest that clarity becomes possible and personal freedom achieved.” – Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia (from the Foreword) “This anthology offers a substantial number of narratives that represent seeking wholeness, sustenance, and renewal. In many cases, the authors provide a tribute to those who have impacted their lives in profound ways. This is an important contribution to both art education and literary education in the world of scholarly research.” – Laurel H. Campbell, Purdue University
Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the directi... more Current educational policies, particularly in the United States, have swung so far in the direction of overtly politicized and decontextualized testing, that we are losing opportunities to support the imaginative and expressive capacities of a generation of children and adolescents with implications for our individual and collective health. Enter arts education and the healing arts as urgently needed remedies for this imbalance, to swing the pendulum of educational practices back to a place of balance and wholeness.Informed by an arts-based sensibility, this book explores how imaginative, creative, and artistic experiences can heal, and why we urgently need them at the heart of our educational discourses and practices. These chapters invite teachers, teacher educators, and therapeutic professionals to reclaim imaginative, arts-based experiences as central to the human conditions that they serve. The narratives and case studies included here are of interest for any arts-based qualitative research course as an example of narrative inquiry, and in arts and general education programs for their pedagogical implications.
“As Blake invited us to find the world in a grain of sand and showed us how poetry could materialize this, so too these storytellers discover and shape their personal meanings in ceramic pots, paintings, poems, drama, and poetry. While the stories told here are deeply ingrained interior journeys, all reflect ways of observing and embracing the world of others, of becoming wise, becoming self, and becoming skilled practitioners of meaning making. By naming and framing they suggest that clarity becomes possible and personal freedom achieved.” – Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia (from the Foreword)
“This anthology offers a substantial number of narratives that represent seeking wholeness, sustenance, and renewal. In many cases, the authors provide a tribute to those who have impacted their lives in profound ways. This is an important contribution to both art education and literary education in the world of scholarly research.” – Laurel H. Campbell, Purdue University
This nine chapter volume explores creativity in art teaching through contemporary craft. A variet... more This nine chapter volume explores creativity in art teaching through contemporary craft. A variety of artists, educators and historians share with readers their wealth of practical resources and frameworks for utilizing craft media (fiber, ceramics, baskets, needlepoint, knitting, etc.) and craft approaches (grassroots projects, digital communities, craftivism, etc.) within contemporary K-12 art education, museum and community programming, and teaching artist residencies. Authors representing a variety of specialties in craft, art, and education examine the resurgence of the handmade and homemade in contemporary youth culture, digital implications of how we define and teach craft creatively, and the overlap of design, function, and beauty in artists’ work. The anthology also describes the challenges and potentialities of working with craft in education settings, including the overarching craft of teaching practices. Each chapter provides a range of creative frameworks and practical models that educators can use comprehensively: from dynamic digital resources, to community groups, and lesson plans and activities in craft with art classes and special needs classes. The book serves to propose a working definition and rationale of the functions of craft in daily life, popular and youth culture, and larger social issues (including craft, D.I.Y., and activism/“craftivism”).
This book is a collection of glimpses into the lives and works of fifteen prominent women artists... more This book is a collection of glimpses into the lives and works of fifteen prominent women artists in contemporary ceramics. Spanning multiple genres, generations, and geographies, these potters and ceramic sculptors describe nuances, contradictions, and tensions surrounding their artworks, artistic processes, and professional lives. Within this text, artistic ambivalences are questioned and analyzed in terms of myriad gender issues. Featured ceramicists include women working in the United States: Maureen Burns-Bowie, Esta Carnahan, Ellen Day, Dolores Dunning, Heidi Fahrenbacher, DeBorah Goletz, Lynn Goodman, Joan Hardin, Beth Heit, Norma Messing, and Mary Trainor. Artists from other countries are also surveyed, such as Cara Gay Driscoll, Tsehai Johnson, Kate Malone, and Elspeth Owen.
The qualitative research summarized within this book draws influence from feminist methodologies and the visual arts methodology of portraiture. Artists, art historians, and art educators interested in ceramics and gender will find detailed discussion of subtle and unexpected persistence of gendered associations within ceramic technology, binaries of gender identity in symbols and traditions of clay, and subtle sexism surrounding ceramics education. At the same time, this text celebrates women’s work in ceramics as an often neglected set of perspectives, highlighting the intricate complexities of artistic ambivalences and lived experiences of art within a dynamic dialogue.
Courtney Lee Weida is a ceramic artist and assistant professor of art education. Her education includes degrees from Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Columbia University Teachers College. She has taught within public schools, museums, and arts organizations. Her publications include contributions to the Teaching Artist Journal, the Guild of Book Workers' Journal, the Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, and multiple publications of the National Art Education Association. She can be reached through www.courtneyweida.com
Zine making involves not only the creation of handmade and self-published books, but also local d... more Zine making involves not only the creation of handmade and self-published books, but also local distribution in zine communities, as well as archival processes of zine collecting in university and community libraries. These creative and communal practices, as part of the intellectual discourse known as zine studies, engender valuable arts-based research orientations and implications for art education. This article investigates zines for their potential as objects of research exploring art teacher identities and autoethnography, fandom in zines as a devotional orientation and interdisciplinary form of research methodology, and research questions pertaining to practices of collecting and archiving zine materials in universities and zine communities. Characterized by proliferation in the 1990s and a strong contemporary continuation, zines continue to create distinctly personal and communal spaces for art education reflection.
Unicorns appear as enchanted and enchanting figures throughout fairy tales, popular media, fan ar... more Unicorns appear as enchanted and enchanting figures throughout fairy tales, popular media, fan art, and products, often intended or marketed for young girls. How can reading, viewing, and artmaking encounters with the mythical unicorn in artist books, which often appear in fairy tales authored by women, as well as in paintings, tapestries, illuminated letters, and films foster girls' imaginative power and empowerment fantasy? The authors' reflective inquiry about their community fairy tale arts workshop revealed elementary school girls' specific interest in a variety of unicorn imagery and characters from medieval art to contemporary television. Recognizing girls' interest in unicorn narratives, the authors, in this essay, explore how critical reading and the creation of art and stories about unicorns can teach girls to begin envisioning their agency through art. Specifically, their research asks: What gendered expectations and stereotypes about girlhood and womanhood may be embedded in a unicorn image? In what ways does the girls' fascination with unicorns also defy these stereotypes? Since a great deal of unicorn imagery can be traced back to Eurocentric books and visual culture, how can contemporary and counterculture versions of the unicorn revise whiteness and heteronormativity in visions of girlhood?
International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, 2020
In what ways can the symbol of the unicorn represent and inform collaborative, intergenerational ... more In what ways can the symbol of the unicorn represent and inform collaborative, intergenerational visions of art education? This paper outlines some of the roles of the unicorn as a theme and a framework for contemporary applications of art education relating to enduring Froebelian art education, Waldorf-inspired art teaching, and inclusive community art practice as a form of remix. This research seeks to illuminate enduring but oft-neglected areas of inspiring art curriculum for teachers and learners across the lifespan.
In the following paper, the authors analyze the prevalence of princess culture in the literature,... more In the following paper, the authors analyze the prevalence of princess culture in the literature, film, and visual culture of young people. The authors, an art educator, art historian, and professor of English literature, propose creative interventions through alternative resources and readings. Focusing on foundations of media studies and literature of Fairy-Tale Studies and girlhood studies, this interdisciplinary collaboration investigates complex creative predicaments of girlhood and princess media. Utilizing Princess Aurora and Sleeping Beauty as a case study and focal point, the authors discuss their collaborative arts research intended to explore problems and possibilities of princess culture.
Hybrid and fully online studies and classrooms are no longer fringe elements of learning or knowl... more Hybrid and fully online studies and classrooms are no longer fringe elements of learning or knowledge acquisition; they have become integral part of learning in the 21st century. Like all modes and styles of learning, they depend on continuous research for best practices in order to remain relevant in terms of effectiveness and growth. This study is a collaboration between three professors. The courses and students we taught were in Special Education, Adolescence (Secondary) Education and Art Education. There were 35 females and 5 males in the study. Half of participants were graduate students and half-were undergraduate students, total N = 40. The participants answered 35 survey questions on their experiences in their hybrid classes at the end of the seminars via surveymonkey.com. The asynchronous hybrid classes utilized technology infused teaching, including online discussion forums, video projects, Power Points with narration and podcasts.
(In press proof of 2018 chapter.) I have experimented across several artistic media, as an artis... more (In press proof of 2018 chapter.) I have experimented across several artistic media, as an artist and teacher, but I have always been particularly drawn to the crafts, such as ceramics, basketry, and fiber. This ‘soft stuff’ has enthralled me, and also helped me to make sense of intuitively felt connections between activism and feminism in education....
Global Consciousness through the Arts: A Passport for Students and Teachers, 2018
This lesson explores treasures. Students will learn about local communities through archaeologic... more This lesson explores treasures. Students will learn about local communities through archaeological activities, and practice creating and curating treasure in the studio. The hook or essential questions of this lesson include: What is treasure? Who decides how treasure is found, preserved, and documented? When does a personal possession become a communal treasure?
Superhero and private detective Jessica Jones, “is not above humor, or beauty, or faith; she is n... more Superhero and private detective Jessica Jones, “is not above humor, or beauty, or faith; she is neither weak nor helpless.” In all its multiplicity, Marvel’s Jessica Jones is revolutionary in its diverse depiction of women’s life experiences and relationships. Finding its home on Netflix’s streaming service after being passed over by network television, the show stands to extend a small continuum of cult media representations of powerful women superheroes and their complex female friendships. Jessica Jones herself (as represented through showrunner Melissa Rosenberg’s creative vision) is somewhat ambivalent about the implications of her powers: superhero strength, speed, and healing, as well as the responsibilities and burdens those powers may incur. With common threads of a compelling, if somewhat unwilling, complex female heroine, this chapter will draw comparisons between Jessica Jones and Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS), a 1997-2003 show in which the female lead, Buffy Summers, possesses strikingly comparable superhuman power (enhanced strength, speed, and healing) and also responds to a calling to protect others.
Begun in 2012, the South Station Hoard is a collaborative effort to imagine, construct, and docum... more Begun in 2012, the South Station Hoard is a collaborative effort to imagine, construct, and document a speculative treasure trove left by tween girls. In this essay, I introduce our project, the collaboration it inspired between my artist colleagues and myself (an Art Historian), and the directions it has taken since its initial presentation at the BABEL 2012 conference in Boston, MA. One aim of this essay is to be a safe repository (or even a sort of hoard) for us to store the memories of our collaboration.
Many adolescents interact with text in a digital fashion via Kindle, the Gutenberg Project, and/o... more Many adolescents interact with text in a digital fashion via Kindle, the Gutenberg Project, and/or Google Books with greater frequency than traditional books. This article explores artists' books and bookwork as structural and conceptual metaphors for digital spaces of art created and/or utilized by teenagers. Artists' books can be categorized as art and artifact—as materials of historical record, commentary, and personal expression. While book arts often engage in self-conscious reconceptualizations of text and image, digital media such as wikis, blogs, and online social networks dovetail, extend and/or reflect/are reflected by questionings of the book format as well. This article examines digital spaces (places?) of youth culture and artistic expression such as Myspace, Facebook, deviantART, and others. Artists' books often challenge traditional forms of publishing and codex, addressing questions of media and message parallel to ongoing issues of technology in our digital age. Digital spaces of art utilized by adolescents take on a similar autonomy, marginality, and liminality to limited edition and/or self-published artists' books. At the same time, both artists' books and young artists' websites contain a certain element of awareness of the viewer/spectator within narratives and documentary structures, serving as uniquely interactively engaging contexts of art education.
How do contemporary works of film and fiction inspire, illuminate, and enhance remix culture in a... more How do contemporary works of film and fiction inspire, illuminate, and enhance remix culture in art education? By definition, the practice of remix extends a dialogue between source and derivative materials, taking “the original author’s creativity and remix[ing] it in our own lives [and] ideas" (Knobel and Lankshear, 2008; p. 22). This chapter examines diverse fan art communities and remixes pertaining to The Hunger Games major motion pictures and novels as art education contexts that explore overlapping roles of race, class, and community. Further, Hunger Games remix culture provocatively weaves intertextual threads from the source materials, suggesting powerful links between art as activism/protest, and as cultural sustenance.
What visions (and versions) of feminism and motherhood are revealed by four women artists in the ... more What visions (and versions) of feminism and motherhood are revealed by four women artists in the psychologically-laden genre of surrealism?...
Reflecting on his joint appointment in visual art and education, Stanford Professor Eliot Eisner ... more Reflecting on his joint appointment in visual art and education, Stanford Professor Eliot Eisner commented that he felt less welcome in the art department (2003). Exploring a job option at one university, I was told that as arts education faculty, neither I, nor my students, would be permitted in the school's impressive ceramics facility. How are we to encourage developing educators to incorporate the arts into their pedagogy if they lack access to first hand arts experiences? In response to this query, this chapter addresses the structure, content, and effect of a set of Exploring the Arts courses designed to bridge the education/studio gap with interdisciplinary arts offerings for visual artists and arts educators, as well as classroom teachers and artists across domains. Art Educator Adrift: Art Department vs. Education School In a survey of art education programs, Galbraith and Grauer (2004) observed that teacher educators are often afforded less status than their colleagues in other subject areas within the hierarchical structures of universities and colleges. Although teaching is a central part of being a professor, the activity and study of teaching may be seen as secondary and less valuable than research into what are regarded as more academic subject areas of higher education.
In college and graduate school, I worked as the director of summer arts programs at sleep-away an... more In college and graduate school, I worked as the director of summer arts programs at sleep-away and day camps near the ocean. A paint shortage halfway through one summer led me to sort through seemingly ancient art materials boxed and forgotten from a predecessor’s supply stash. I located several dusty half-made baskets and unwoven reeds. One of my staff members expressed great joy at this finding. Obliging her interest and initiative, our students trailed out of the art cabin later that afternoon, wading into the cool and shallow water along the shore, equipped with reeds and her helpful guidance on basket weaving. That day, a calm washed over us as we wove water-softened reeds into baskets and discussed the history, use, and look of them along the beach. Weaving in beads, shells, and scraps of colorful paper over subsequent sessions, we were spellbound by the process Meilach (1974) described as “revising creative methods used centuries ago” (p. 1).
This collaborative arts research project compares the landmark discovery of the Staffordshire Hoa... more This collaborative arts research project compares the landmark discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork discovered in 2009, with an imagined hoard from present day pre-adolescent girls. The collaborators constructed a subterranean installation, generated speculative historical documents, collected and embellished social networking “artifacts,” and photographed the entire process. In addition to dealing with the notion of a medieval hoard as a signifier of a medieval warrior as both hero and anti-hero, this artbook, or work of futurist archaeology, addresses contemporary issues relating to gender, youth culture, bullying, adolescent development, iconicity, status symbols, and additional contemporary tween issues.
I find that I am envisioning language barriers as a layer of ice between people: beautiful, myste... more I find that I am envisioning language barriers as a layer of ice between people: beautiful, mysterious, softening sound, invisible in some lights, and yet still a boundary. How are our many borders beautiful and terrible? (June 2009 travel journal, 1 first night in Mexico) F or art teachers to explore issues of cultural representations and sensitivities in their own classrooms and other teaching spaces, and to relate theory to practice, they must reflect thoughtfully upon their own lives, living places, and contexts in relationships to their students. I have had the opportunity to teach several university-level courses in art, art education, and art history around compelling issues of gender and culture. As a female, I feel somewhat comfortable exploring particular questions and representations of gender because I am familiar with these works, on personal and professional levels. But as a person with uncertain but likely Caucasian heritage, I am less at ease investigating several cultural traditions and issues. I have often been fortunate to teach art not only to college students, but also to adolescents. I looked for connections between multicultural art history college courses in Latin American art and my younger, predominantly Latino students. My undergraduate students and I utilized Brenda Jo Bright and Liza Blakewell's (1995) Looking High and Low: Art and Cultural Identity and Lucy Lippard's (1990) Mixed Blessings: Art in a Multicultural America, which thoughtfully address some of the challenges of relating and researching from many different artistic and cultural perspectives. Bright and Blakewell (1995) argue that art is created across various evaluative, social, cultural, and geographical boundaries, and that art historical analysis should consider these forces within aesthetic production and critique. With such an approach, teachers can meaningfully explore the artistic and national boundaries between two countries, the United States and Mexico (something I endeavored to do when teaching art to middle school students). More recently, as an art education professor in the Northeastern US, I was given the opportunity to cross national boundaries and visit Guanajuato, Mexico (Figure 1). I compared my literature-based experiences of Mexican art with art lectures and events in museums, galleries, studios, and schools. Since that time, I reflected upon my visit and incorporated images, ideas, and questions from these rich experiences into my creative processes as a K-12 teaching artist and teacher educator. This chapter explores my glimpses of Guana-juato, Mexico, in the context of subsequent teaching experiences in Garden City, New York, with preservice art teachers.
In considering craft education from a holistic perspective, a central voice is renowned poet and ... more In considering craft education from a holistic perspective, a central voice is renowned poet and potter, Mary Caroline (M. C.) Richards, who once noted that one “cannot talk about the crafts without appealing to the evolving spirit of man” (1989, p. 27). Richards taught in a variety of educational settings, including K-12 education, universities, and community workshops for learners across the lifespan. She discovered pottery when she came to Black Mountain College to teach writing and literature from 1945 to 1951. She became a pottery student at Black Mountain College, and later went on to teach both poetry and pottery for special needs populations, through an integrated life philosophy of craft. Richards (1973) described the educational philosophy derived from her rich experiences as an “interdisciplinary study” and “search for wholeness . . . through the ordeals of life” (p. 157). Her renaissance approach to teaching was a quest “to integrate poetry, pottery, inner development, community, and education” (p. 3). Richards’ classic book, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person (1989), provides a framework for exploring many aspects of life through pottery. Richards’ work continuously acknowledges and celebrates the self, the mind, the hands, the clay, and the community.
The work of teachers and literacy specialists has a lot of potential overlap with that of teachin... more The work of teachers and literacy specialists has a lot of potential overlap with that of teaching artists of visual and literary arts within early childhood education. When young people in preschools and kindergartens practice early art and literacy, these two areas build in a sort of symphony as youngsters tell stories, make drawings of their experiences, and have illustrated books read and shown to them by others. Over the past five years as a professor, Courtney Weida has organized collaborations within her institution's community literacy center between preservice art teachers and preservice literacy specialists, bringing book arts projects into a sort of dialogue with literacy curricula for educators and young people. This article explores key book arts activities with young people from those teaching experiences that promote and document early art and literacy learning.
This chapter is an accepted proof for a forthcoming DIO press publication titled Illuminating Soc... more This chapter is an accepted proof for a forthcoming DIO press publication titled Illuminating Social Imagination.
Before I started elementary school, I remember being obsessed with the idea of treasure. I loved ... more Before I started elementary school, I remember being obsessed with the idea of treasure. I loved tales of pirates and jewels, and relished movies including secret compartments and magical amulets. An older sibling bought me beloved kitschy treasure chests from pet store aquarium sections. I also used to dig in the backyard, scour the basement, and sift through my mother's jewelry in hopes to find some ancient, forgotten, secret objects. Treasure, with its preciousness and stories are interesting to children with good reason. The acts of discovering, discussing, defining, and creating treasure are inherently and usefully artistic, for we must decide what qualities of color, shape, luster, history, myth and meaning might render an object to become treasured.
Art and art education projects can be cross disciplinary, experimental, and provocative. In teach... more Art and art education projects can be cross disciplinary, experimental, and provocative. In teaching and researching within the field of art education, my collaborations with art historians and studio artists enrich my sense of documentation and analysis of visual cultures. For this reason, I was intrigued when my colleague mentioned her exciting project idea inspired by the Staffordshire Hoard, a magnificent collection of gold jewelry and weapons discovered in the summer of 2009. Leahy and Bland note the Staffordshire Hoard collection was conspicuously missing "feminine objects, such as dress fitting, pendants, and broaches."1 This lack of female visual culture in the treasury puzzled and inspired us. My colleague (an art historian) was not simply studying the historic hoard, but imagining and creating female tween treasures with a photographer in order to juxtapose contemporary girlhood culture with that of medieval warriors. Working together, we hoped to theorize hoards...
This chapter explores cognitive, sensory, and emotional dimensions of contemporary craft educatio... more This chapter explores cognitive, sensory, and emotional dimensions of contemporary craft education. I have often overheard ceramics and craft teachers lament not only adolescent students’ inability to model clay, knit, and/or crochet – but also express concern for adult students who have scarcely ever worked with their hands in a direct engagement with tactile art media. Learners who encounter warm, soft, and time-honored materials of craft can engage not only with craft histories and hand-made sensibilities, but can also “get in touch with” a sense of their own development and the embodiment of internal transformations. This chapter juxtaposes historical voices of M. C. Richards and Seonaid Robertson concerning wholeness and holistic education with commentary on contemporary D.I.Y. cultures and digital communities renewing and revising craft. Within this chapter, I will also investigate uneasy connotations of culture, gender, and status surrounding craft materials, including characterizations of “soft” scholarship and “hobbyist” status in artists’ engagement with felt, fabric, fiber, clay, and other soft, sensory “stuff.” I will consider examples from my own work teaching children about craft and clay, projects of the International Fiber Collaborative, and online craft groups geared towards adolescents and young adults, as rich and varied learning examples exploring identity and community.
Page 1. Gender, Aesthetics, and Sexuality in Play: Uneasy Lessons from Girls' Dolls, Act... more Page 1. Gender, Aesthetics, and Sexuality in Play: Uneasy Lessons from Girls' Dolls, Action Figures, and Television Programs Courtney Lee Weida Adelphi University Abstract How does children's play with dolls and action figures engender ...
What do our students long for within spaces of art education? What would they like to understand ... more What do our students long for within spaces of art education? What would they like to understand and express about homes and families? This article examines home as a valuable context and concept for teaching artists. Kathleen Vaughan (a researcher of art education ...
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collectio... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Ambivalences of art: Nuance, contradiction, and duality in the words and works of women in contemporary ceramics. ...
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collectio... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Ambivalences of art: Nuance, contradiction, and duality in the words and works of women in contemporary ceramics. ...
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“As Blake invited us to find the world in a grain of sand and showed us how poetry could materialize this, so too these storytellers discover and shape their personal meanings in ceramic pots, paintings, poems, drama, and poetry. While the stories told here are deeply ingrained interior journeys, all reflect ways of observing and embracing the world of others, of becoming wise, becoming self, and becoming skilled practitioners of meaning making. By naming and framing they suggest that clarity becomes possible and personal freedom achieved.” – Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia (from the Foreword)
“This anthology offers a substantial number of narratives that represent seeking wholeness, sustenance, and renewal. In many cases, the authors provide a tribute to those who have impacted their lives in profound ways. This is an important contribution to both art education and literary education in the world of scholarly research.” – Laurel H. Campbell, Purdue University
The qualitative research summarized within this book draws influence from feminist methodologies and the visual arts methodology of portraiture. Artists, art historians, and art educators interested in ceramics and gender will find detailed discussion of subtle and unexpected persistence of gendered associations within ceramic technology, binaries of gender identity in symbols and traditions of clay, and subtle sexism surrounding ceramics education. At the same time, this text celebrates women’s work in ceramics as an often neglected set of perspectives, highlighting the intricate complexities of artistic ambivalences and lived experiences of art within a dynamic dialogue.
Courtney Lee Weida is a ceramic artist and assistant professor of art education. Her education includes degrees from Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Columbia University Teachers College. She has taught within public schools, museums, and arts organizations. Her publications include contributions to the Teaching Artist Journal, the Guild of Book Workers' Journal, the Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, and multiple publications of the National Art Education Association. She can be reached through www.courtneyweida.com
Papers - Articles and Chapters by Courtney Weida
“As Blake invited us to find the world in a grain of sand and showed us how poetry could materialize this, so too these storytellers discover and shape their personal meanings in ceramic pots, paintings, poems, drama, and poetry. While the stories told here are deeply ingrained interior journeys, all reflect ways of observing and embracing the world of others, of becoming wise, becoming self, and becoming skilled practitioners of meaning making. By naming and framing they suggest that clarity becomes possible and personal freedom achieved.” – Judith M. Burton, Teachers College, Columbia (from the Foreword)
“This anthology offers a substantial number of narratives that represent seeking wholeness, sustenance, and renewal. In many cases, the authors provide a tribute to those who have impacted their lives in profound ways. This is an important contribution to both art education and literary education in the world of scholarly research.” – Laurel H. Campbell, Purdue University
The qualitative research summarized within this book draws influence from feminist methodologies and the visual arts methodology of portraiture. Artists, art historians, and art educators interested in ceramics and gender will find detailed discussion of subtle and unexpected persistence of gendered associations within ceramic technology, binaries of gender identity in symbols and traditions of clay, and subtle sexism surrounding ceramics education. At the same time, this text celebrates women’s work in ceramics as an often neglected set of perspectives, highlighting the intricate complexities of artistic ambivalences and lived experiences of art within a dynamic dialogue.
Courtney Lee Weida is a ceramic artist and assistant professor of art education. Her education includes degrees from Northeastern University, Harvard University, and Columbia University Teachers College. She has taught within public schools, museums, and arts organizations. Her publications include contributions to the Teaching Artist Journal, the Guild of Book Workers' Journal, the Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, and multiple publications of the National Art Education Association. She can be reached through www.courtneyweida.com